Christie's health benefits overhaul will make public employees pay a third of their health care costs in three years

Governor Christie answers questions from the audience at an April 12 town hall meeting at Naval Air Station Wildwood at the Cape May Airport.

TRENTON - Gov. Chris Christie has long called for state workers
to pay more of their health care costs, and now proposes a
phased-in plan over three years that would require employees to pay
about a third of those costs by mid-2014.

The Christie administration on Monday laid out more details of
the Republican governor's proposal. Under it, current workers would
pay 10 percent of their health care premiums beginning in July; 17
percent in January; 23 percent in January 2013; and 30 percent by
July 2014.

New hires would pay 30 percent toward their premiums
immediately.

In addition, the plan calls for increasing co-pays and giving
workers more health plans from which to choose, but those details
have not yet been laid out.

"Ultimately, we project annual savings at $871 million once the
30 percent premium share is fully implemented in 2014," state
Treasury Department spokesman William Quinn said.

The governor's proposal is largely modeled after the federal
health care plan and would mean a significant increase in
contributions by state workers, who currently pay 1.5 percent of
their salary. On average, the state work force pays about 8 percent
of the cost of premiums.

Democrats have questioned the amount of savings projected by the
administration, saying the administration has yet to propose
legislation because doing so would prompt an independent evaluation
from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

Quinn declined to provide a breakdown of savings. But in the
budget proposal, the administration says that if the governor's
plan is adopted, the state would save $323 million in the 2012
budget year, which begins in July.

"I can't make heads or tails of where they come up with the
numbers," said state Sen. Paul Sarlo, chairman of the Senate Budget
Committee. "I'm willing to listen and learn about it, but that's a
lot of savings.

"We keep asking questions and they keep telling us they will get
back to us with the answers," Sarlo, D-Bergen, Essex, Passaic,
said.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Salem, Gloucester,
Cumberland, has also offered a phase-in plan, one that more closely
ties salaries to the level of contribution. His plan has a sliding
scale of 12 percent to 30 percent of the cost of the premium, based
on income and phased in over seven years.

Within seven years, top-tier workers making over $100,000 would
also contribute 30 percent of the cost of their premiums while
those making $30,000 or less would only pay 12 percent of their
premium.

OLS has estimated that Sweeney's plan would save $206 million
when fully implemented.

Sweeney's proposal also calls for increasing the number of
health care plans offered to state workers.

A spokesman for Sweeney declined to comment on the governor's
proposal.

The state's largest workers union, which is pushing to reform
benefits through collective bargaining rather than legislation, has
also put forward a plan. It would have workers continue to pay 1.5
percent of their salary and 8.5 percent of their premium by the
fourth and final year of a new contract.

Communications Workers of America officials said that their plan
would save the state $240 million but that the governor has refused
to acknowledge it.

"This belongs not in the newspapers, but at the collective
bargaining table," CWA state director Hetty Rosenstein said of the
governor's proposed overhaul. "We presented the governor with a
health care proposal on March 11 and received no response."

Christie, who has made a national name for his fights with union
leaders - especially teachers - has said he won't bargain over
pension and health care reform.

Sweeney says he is open to reform through either the negotiating
table or legislation.